As this year progresses my idea for the final show begins to take shape and grow into something a little more tangible. However, I do feel that it is a little premature to say for sure what my plan is or even if it will work. That being said, I will explain my plans for the next few months until the final show arrives.
So far I have made a few hundred blank, white beads that I learned how to make in the past year from emails with Anita Paden from the New Hope Center in Goma, Congo. Instead of making it purely about what has been happening in the past few decades in Central and Eastern Africa, I have decided to make it about as many people as I can. I decided to make the theme a little less specific and more about what people around the world think is meaningful to them.
So how I have decided to attempt this is through social media. I feel that the world is quickly becoming smaller and smaller by the day because of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and more and more social networking sites popping up yearly to incorporate more of people's interests and ideas. We have entered into the age of the internet and this, I believe, is where art is headed as well. I have created a
Facebook page, a
Twitter page and a
Tumblr page all called "Something Meaningful" calling anyone and everyone to get involved by just telling me what is meaningful to them. My hope is that more and more people will follow and share this page and briefly share their thoughts, in which I will conceal into a bead and mix it in with the rest.
The idea is to make as many beads full of meaning as I can, but being that their thoughts are concealed within a bead, just as the Congolese children's memories are concealed within their beads, there is no way to know how meaningful this bead is. I would also like to create little workshops to teach how to make paper beads, and to create meaning by social gatherings.
In the past few days, it has been stretching for me to be actively posting things on my sites just so I can engage people to converse with me, and in truth at the moment it does feel like pulling teeth. However, I do have fifty followers just from within the past few days and a few replys, enough to keep my spirits up. My demographic so far is around the age of 20 to 30 years old, being that I had to ask my friends first to like my page, however, there are a few people that have followed me that I don't know, and I find that very exciting. What's even more fascinating is that ever since I have made these pages, people I haven't spoken to for years are now making contact with me (personal and irrelevant side note).
Regardless on what happens out of this, I am excited to see what kind of results comes out of it.
So how I have decided to attempt this is through social media. I feel that the world is quickly becoming smaller and smaller by the day because of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and more and more social networking sites popping up yearly to incorporate more of people's interests and ideas. We have entered into the age of the internet and this, I believe, is where art is headed as well. I have created a Facebook page, a Twitter page and a Tumblr page all called "Something Meaningful" calling anyone and everyone to get involved by just telling me what is meaningful to them. My hope is that more and more people will follow and share this page and briefly share their thoughts, in which I will conceal into a bead and mix it in with the rest. 
In the past few days, it has been stretching for me to be actively posting things on my sites just so I can engage people to converse with me, and in truth at the moment it does feel like pulling teeth. However, I do have fifty followers just from within the past few days and a few replys, enough to keep my spirits up. My demographic so far is around the age of 20 to 30 years old, being that I had to ask my friends first to like my page, however, there are a few people that have followed me that I don't know, and I find that very exciting. What's even more fascinating is that ever since I have made these pages, people I haven't spoken to for years are now making contact with me (personal and irrelevant side note). 
